


Timelines

by IJustMetAGirlNamedMaria (orphan_account)



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: Alyssa is gay for Emma playing the guitar, F/F, Fluff, One Shot, Pre-Canon, aren't we all, wlw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:34:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23317693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/IJustMetAGirlNamedMaria
Summary: Alyssa's timelines split.
Relationships: Alyssa Greene/Emma Nolan
Comments: 1
Kudos: 29





	Timelines

Alyssa watched Emma play guitar. She had this small smile as she sang. Her voice was clear and low and sweet. It was a song she wrote, about a love for a mystery girl. Her lamp backlit her hair in a way that made her glow. Alyssa's entire heart hurt, looking at her. They were both sitting on Emma's bed, study supplies forgotten on the desk in the corner. They sat cross legged, across from eachother. Their knees touched, just barley. Emma was wearing a band t-shirt under an open flannel, her eyes were closed. The whole room smelled like Emma, it was dizzying. The last line of the song was about how she could never tell the girl how much she loved her. Emma opened her eyes slowly, bashfully, like she was nervous to meet Alyssa's eyes. She had blonde eyelashes. There was a moment, where the song might have been about Alyssa. An alternate universe. Emma stopped singing and looked up at her, a soft, blue eyed smile. There's always a moment after a song ends where silence takes it space. It was deafening. Some force of the universe made Alyssa lean in, shift positions just a bit, and suddenly their faces were close enough that Alyssa could feel Emma's breath on her face, Emma's eyes widened a bit, and the timelines split.  
There was a universe where Alyssa closed the gap, and kissed her. And where Emma kissed her back. And where Alyssa ran her hands Emma's soft hair and felt her body close to her and everything was perfect. There was a golden timeline where Alyssa told her how much she loved her and Emma inconceivably loved her back, where Alyssa could tell her that everytime she smiles Alyssa feels her stomach ache in a good way. And Alyssa kisses her and kisses her and tells her she's been in love with Emma since that damn talent show and Emma holds her. There is a timeline where her heart is the best kind of full. Where there is no world outside of this bedroom. Alyssa couldn't even imagine what that was like. She couldn't pull the feeling of Emma's lips from any imagined memory.  
There is another timeline where she kissed Emma and Emma froze, and Alyssa pulled back and felt heart pounding profound humiliation and Emma never spoke to her again and Alyssa lost her only friend and had to experience that heartbreak in the dark. Where she was another person to hurt Emma, where Emma was another person to hurt her. Where she had to hide the source of even more puffy eyes from her mother, And she couldn't tell anyone because the only person she talked about feelings with was Emma. There was a timeline where Alyssa went to sleep knowing what Emma's lips felt like and she never kissed them again. There was a timeline where her heart broke and broke and broke. Just like it was breaking now as Emma smiled at her. Just like it broke every day.  
Timelines split every day for Alyssa. She picks them like chapstick flavors. She crushes them into her eyeshadow. There is one where her dad stayed, and her mother doesn't cry every Christmas. There is one where Alyssa is straight, and normal and not painfully in love with her best friend. There is a timeline where Alyssa comes out. That one appears every time someone asks about boys. She stirs her tea with sweeter alternate dimensions. The steady pulse of a whispered someday lulls her to sleep. Emma has consumed this practice of timelines, because every time Alyssa sees her, there is a new timeline where she tells her that she's in love with her. But that's the thing about alternate timelines and universes, they are separate from our own. And even though every tiny action sparks a new thread of time, we can only live in one. Timelines are thread in a necklace that feels more like a noose everyday, because if she had said this instead, or done that, or not been stupid, then maybe her life would be ok.  
So here she sits. Kissing distance from Emma, who hasn't moved.  
"What did you think?" Emma murmured. She was staring at Alyssa's lips, her face flushed. "I liked it. I loved it." Alyssa said. Maybe Emma could read minds. She filled her brain with the melody of that song just in case.  
"Thanks."  
Timelines danced in the space between their lips.  
"Who was it about?"  
"What?"  
"The song."  
Emma's eyes widened. Neither of them had moved.  
"A- A girl." She stuttered. There was a moment of silence where Alyssa's heart was loud in her ears. It tremoured in her chest. Timelines are made of regrets. Of things she wished she had done.  
"Emma, I like you. Like, romantically." Emma's eyes widened. Timelines leapt down Alyssa's mouth, forming a lump in her throat.  
"Oh." Emma said. And this was the worst one. Alyssa shifted her weight back. Her heartbeat was the only noise and it was worse than silence. "You don't have to like me back, I just had to tell you." Her voice was steady, but her hands shook. Timelines are made of regrets. They are woven from the thread of wishes. Of if onlys and maybes. Alyssa couldn't breathe from the weight of every universe in her mind. But then Emma smiled. She smiled so wide her entire face crumpled like paper. Alyssa's heart squeezed in her chest.  
"I like you too. I like you so much." She could feel the dimensions shift. Her breath shook in a different way. Emma smiled, in a breathless way. Her face was pink. Alyssa remembered that distance again.  
"Can I kiss you?" She blurted. Emma's eyes widened. "Yes! Yes. Yes you can do that."  
Timelines melted into that clumsy kiss. Emma's chapped lips pressed gently to hers. There are no kisses, in any universe, in any fantasy, greater than this, Alyssa thought. Emma's hand was in hers. For once, there was no alternate dimension she would rather be in.


End file.
